On Wednesday, Google released version 25.0.1364.172 of its Chrome web browser. The update, a 48.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- This release contains stability improvements, and a new version of Adobe Flash.

Google Chrome 25.0.1364.172 requires an Intel-based Mac with Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run. If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

New Features:
Memory intrinics: To enable memory intrinics two changes are required:
- Produce the memory op codes by changing the compiler
- Expose the appropriate APIs through playeglobal.swc to leverage these opcodes

There’s no guarantee that they’ll be in the next MacBook Pro or MacBook Air that you buy, but there’s cool AMD stuff on the horizon.

Per Engadget, AMD has announced that it’s planning to release a fresh batch of low-power APUs just 11 months after Trinity. Known as “Richland”, this generation won’t be vastly different at the silicon level, as it’s built on the same 32nm process as Trinity, has the same number of transistors and offers very similar compute performance in terms of raw GFLOPs. However, there are some noteworthy upgrades in attendance, including a move to Radeon HD 8000M graphic processors, which are claimed to deliver a 20-40 percent increase in “visual performance” in higher-end models, plus power-saving tweaks that should provide over an hour of additional battery life while watching 720p video.

The top-end quad-core A10-5750M is claimed to beat a laptop Core i7 by over 50 percent in terms of 3DMark performance, and even a dual-core A6-5350M is said to have a 20 percent advantage. There’s no sign of any all-round computing benchmarks, however, or even real-world gaming frame rate comparisons, so it’ll be up to later benchmarking efforts somewhere down the line.

Richland should arrive in regular-shaped notebooks (with TDPs between 20 and 35 watts) starting next month, while ultra-thin notebooks (17 watts or less) and desktop parts should get here by the summer. By then, we’ll be a lot closer to the launch of AMD’s Kaveri APUs, which are to due to ship before the end of this year and should represent a more radical leap than Richland. And in the midst of all this, there’s also Intel’s upcoming Haswell architecture, which is set to debut sometime this year.

On Friday, Google released version 25.0.1364.160 of its Chrome web browser. The update, a 48.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- [Fixed] High CVE-2013-0912: Type confusion in WebKit.

Google Chrome 25.0.1364.160 requires an Intel-based Mac with Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run. If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

Per the Chicago Tribune, an anonymous source has cited that executives have over the past year discussed a possible partnership in which Intel’s foundries would be used to manufacture Apple-designed chips. A deal has not yet been reached, the source said.

This is not the first time rumors of an Apple-Intel partnership have cropped up. A report from May 2011 suggested that Intel showed interest in building Apple’s A4 and A5 SoCs, though no action was taken and the idea was apparently shelved as the so-called Ultrabook initiative gained momentum.

Intel is supposedly looking to shift its strategy as PC sales continue to slump as mobile devices, led by tablets like Apple’s iPad, continue to gobble up marketshare. The firm has been looking to expand its foundry business, most recently agreeing to fabricate silicon based on technology from chip maker Altera.

While an agreement to start production of ARM SoCs would likely undercut adoption of Intel’s own Atom mobile processor, the move might be necessary to keep pace with a quickly changing market. The report also speculates that Intel’s replacement for CEO Paul Otellini, who plans to retire in May, may further diversify the company’s contract operations in a bid to keep manufacturing facilities working at full capacity.

As for Apple, a move to Intel is easier to imagine, as the Mac lineup already runs on x86 processors. It has also been rumored that the company wants to distance itself from current A-series SoC manufacturer Samsung, with which it is ensnarled in a worldwide patent struggle. The Korean electronics giant is also Apple’s biggest competition in the mobile marketplace, with a variety of Android-based devices going jockeying for position against iOS products like the iPhone and iPad.

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On Wednesday, Google released version 25.0.1364.155 of its Chrome web browser. The update, a 48.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and changes:

- This release fixes a crash when typing in the Omnibox.

Google Chrome 25.0.1364.155 requires an Intel-based Mac with Mac OS X 10.6 or later to install and run. If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

The update requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later to install and run.

The second update, Apple Java 2013-002, stands as a 68.3 megabyte download and offers the following fixes and changes:

- Uninstalls the Apple-provided Java applet plug-in from all web browsers. To use applets on a web page, click on the region labeled “Missing plug-in” to go download the latest version of the Java applet plug-in from Oracle.

- Removes the Java Preferences application, which is no longer required to configure applet settings.

The update requires an Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.7 or later to install and run.

The updates can be located, snagged and installed via the Software Update feature built into the Mac OS X operating system.

If you’ve tried the updates and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

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CrossOver, the popular virtualization program from CodeWeavers, has been updated to version 12.1.2. The new version, a 76 megabyte download, is available as a demo, offers the following fixes and changes:
- Fixed a bug which caused Steam to get stuck in a loop while trying to update.

- Fixed a bug which caused performance to suffer badly in Skyrim, and possibly some other games, on certain Linux systems.

- Fixed a bug which caused Outlook 2010 to fail to open .xlsx, .pptx, and .docx attachments.

- Fixed a bug which caused Quicken to fail to connect to Chase Bank online.
Office 2007 and 2010 will now display help topics!

Mac OS X:
- We have improvements to windowing in the Mac Driver.

- We are hopeful that changes in this version of CrossOver will mean that gaming performance will improve when Apple releases its upcoming OS X 10.8.3.

CrossOver 12.1.2 retails for US$59.95 and requires Mac OS X 10.6 and or later and an Intel-based Mac to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

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VirtualBox, an open source x86 virtualization project available for free has just hit version 4.2.8. The new version, a 109 megabyte download, features the following fixes and changes:
- VMM: fixed guest crash with huge amount of guest RAM on VT-x hosts (bug #11306)